Would you buy a FORD FOCUS DIESEL?

[Master-Baits]

Absolutely.. a nice small turbo deisel getting 45-55 mpg with 300 torque would be awesome.

[mofocus]

hmmm wanting to restore my dads 87(i think) F250 diesel right about now, with its International harvester engine and all :P milage be damned, that thing had power

hmm focus diesel, i dont see why not tho, its allabout the total pkg, if they could pull a good looking car off with the diesel package, something maybe like the c-max, then it might work.

[Montag]

Originally Posted by JCH841

??

I just pulled this off the Cat website less than 5 minutes ago -
http://www.cat.com/cda/layout?m=38840&x=7

I stand corrected, sort of, but not really. I knew they had stopped making over-the-road truck engines, which have to meet a stricter emission standard than vocational trucks (semi-offroad stuff like dump trucks), and I ASSumed that they had also stopped making engines for vocational trucks. And they have. I have been in the middle east and away from the trucking industry for a few years, so I am behind the times. It seems CAT has a joint (rebadging) venture with International (Navistar): http://www.truckersnews.com/for-the-record-18/
It's an interesting idea, but I think Internationals are junk and CAT's are overrated.

[Montag]

Originally Posted by xpeterbilt387x

agreed 100% New diesel engines run fine with it. In fact it's not "Low-Sulfur" any longer. My Freightshaker requires "Ultra-Low Sulfur" (15ppm or less) Low-Sulfur is 500ppm or less. Runs fine. All newer diesel engines run fine with it. Said that Low sulfur diesel fuel will damage the engine.

That probably means it will damage the DPF system.

[Skippy905]

Here in Canada, the '12 Focus is rated at 59 MPG (again, imperial gallons), so the jump is not as big as the 40 MPG rating in the US.

However, 21 MPG is still a big jump. I would consider, especially when you consider how good new diesel engines in cars are these days. But our diesel fuel is not designed to be a top seller, and therefore tends to be of lower quality than our European counterparts.

I think that if we had diesels like they do across the pond, and the resources to properly fill the tank with good diesel, I would be inclined to buy. However, thanks the American mentality (and American gas companies) I doubt we will see that kind of change in our lifetime .

[RyEnd]

I just bought a 2005 Jetta TDI for the fiance two months ago. So far it looks like it was the right decision. She drives a solid 400 miles per week, so the gas mileage was key here. The price of diesel was actually LESS than regular 87 up in NE Ohio for a few days 2 weeks ago, and rarely is diesel more than the 93 that I put in my SVT. So the price wasn't really an issue (especially considering the mpgs, we still come out on top). On top of that, the longevity of diesel engines (if they're taken care of) may also come into play. I've driven a few diesel cars over in Europe, and loved every second of it. Of course it isn't going to take off over here because petrol is king (for more reasons than I'd like to get into) but I think diesel is definitely a viable alternative, and if Ford would bring it over in the Focus, I'd definitely look into it.

tl:dr. yes.

[DJ2BIG]

Originally Posted by RyEnd

I just bought a 2005 Jetta TDI for the fiance two months ago. So far it looks like it was the right decision. She drives a solid 400 miles per week, so the gas mileage was key here. The price of diesel was actually LESS than regular 87 up in NE Ohio for a few days 2 weeks ago, and rarely is diesel more than the 93 that I put in my SVT. So the price wasn't really an issue (especially considering the mpgs, we still come out on top). On top of that, the longevity of diesel engines (if they're taken care of) may also come into play. I've driven a few diesel cars over in Europe, and loved every second of it. Of course it isn't going to take off over here because petrol is king (for more reasons than I'd like to get into) but I think diesel is definitely a viable alternative, and if Ford would bring it over in the Focus, I'd definitely look into it.

tl:dr. yes.

If I find a good deal on a used tdi VW I will buy it just to test the water if it turns out great my next new car purchase might be a new diesel VW

[iminhell]

Using what I can find for info from the VW diesel and pulling MPG #'s out my arse,


Gas, 28mpg average, cost of fuel ~$3.80 right now here.
So for you to drive the 'average' 15,000 miles/yr would cost $2,030.71.

Diesel, 40mpg average, cost of fuel ~$4.00 right now here
So for you to drive 15,000 miles would cost $1,500.00.

Savings of $530.71.
Oh but wait, we need to add the cost of fuel/water filters to the mix
O'Reilly's says they cost ~$35.00/each. I'll give the benefit of the doubt and say they can be had cheaper, say $20/each.
I'm not sure what VW recommends but changing one with ever oil change is common and IIRC VW says the oil should be changed every 5,000 miles. So you'd need 3 fuel/water filters, an extra ~$60.
Which knocks the total saving down to $470.71.

Oops, can't forget the cost of oil for the VW, which IIRC calls for 5w-40. O'Reilly's lists that for $7.50/qt (can only find it in synthetic).
The Focus calls for 5w-20 IIRC, they list Motorcraft for $4.29/qt.

7.5*5=$37.50
4.29*5=$21.45
37.5-21.45= $16.05

$470.71-($16.05*3)= $422.56





Granted this is just me quickly going over things that I think are close. But it does illustrate that simply getting better mileage with a diesel isn't the whole story. The cost of upkeep has always been higher for a diesel and that closes the savings gap.
Basically from what I've figured if you take the average mileage the diesel would get and divide it by what you get now, then take half that ... that's close to the actual savings you'd see. In the above it'd go from about 40% savings to about 23% savings.

The only way I've ever been able to figure diesel is the answer is if you got very low mileage to begin with or if you drive long distances a lot. For the 'average' person it just doesn't make sense.

[RyEnd]

iminhell, I totally get what you're saying, but since I own a TDI Jetta, I figured I'd shed some light on your numbers. (given this is just the jetta, I have no experience w/ any other diesel vehicles)

First, since we've had the car, we've been averaging 49-50mpg (80% highway)

Second, you've got the part about the filters a bit wrong. The oil filters for the TDI are ~6 bucks, and oil can be had for ~6/qt AND VW suggest you change it every 10k miles (being synthetic) so we'll call that even w/ a standard petrol engine w/ synthetic oil. The fuel/water filter on the other hand only needs to be replaced every 20k miles (for ~35/20 bucks that you mentioned)

So 75% of 20 bucks, we come to $15 more per year on the Jetta than I do on my SVT, all while getting about 25mpg better. After looking through the Jetta TDI maintenance schedule, and talking to a dealer, the fuel/water filter is the ONLY additional expense when compared to a standard car.

Sure, what's ~750 dollars less spent on fuel per year except maybe 2 car payments?

[iminhell]

I wasn't sure on the interval stuff. Thanks for the clarification. I know with truck diesels we'd do a water filter every oil change. 20,000 seems like a lot, but then they are rated for total gallons passed through them and the big diesels use more fuel.

I know you can save money driving one, but I'm not sure if it's the 'answer' or what repair bills look like vs a gas engine. I do know injector pumps aren't cheap (not lift pump). IIRC buddy told me the VW ones ran about $3,000 to replace and he'd done about 20 of them (head tech at the local VW dealer).

But it's like everything, if you know what you're buying into you'll be fine; if you don't you might be in for a big surprise ... accidentally put gasoline in instead of diesel, run the tank dry and fuel lock the pump, etc. I just don't think the 'average' person knows enough about them, but should. Not saying the average person know shit about gasoline engines though, lol.